Valerie Harper To Star In Launch of National Tour of "Looped" In Hartford

Valerie Harper, who received a Tony Award nomination playing legendary actress Tallulah Bankhead, returns to the role for the launch of the national tour of “Looped” at the Belding Theater at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford.

The show will play a two week run in January as part of the center’s 2012-13 Broadway series.

The three-actor play is by Wethersfield-raised playwright Matthew Lombardo (Broadway’s “High” with Kathleen Turner which premiered at Hartford’s TheaterWorks; off-Broadway’s “Tea at Five,” which premiered at Hartford Stage). "Looped" will again be staged by Rob Ruggiero, acting artistic director of Hartford’s TheaterWorks.

According to press description: “Looped tells the story of Tallulah Bankhead, the internationally celebrated actress, being called into a sound studio in 1965 to re-record (or 'loop') one line of dialogue for what would be her last film — the dreadful 'Die, Die My Darling.' Southern, but by no means a belle, Ms. Bankhead was known for her wild partying and convention-defying exploits that outshone even today's celebrity bad girls. And given her inebriated state (and inability to loop the line perfectly), what ensues is a hilarious showdown between an uptight and conservative sound editor, Danny Miller, and the outrageous legend.”

Harper is a four-time Emmy Award winner famous for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and the spin-off series, “Rhoda.”

She and her husband, Tony Cacciotti developed a one-woman play based on the life and work of Pearl S. Buck, the Nobel Prize-winning author of, among many works, “The Good Earth.” She co-wrote and performed that play “All Under Heaven” (directed by Ruggiero) which premiered at Hartford’s TheaterWorks under the title “The Dragon and the Pearl,” and later played Off-Broadway and across the country.

In 2001 Harper starred in Charles Busch's comedy “The Tale of the Allergist's Wife,” and later played the show on tour. She also toured in “Golda’s Balcony,” which also played The Bushnell.